Saturday, May 30, 2009

Newspaper

Medard’s son, Samuel, is home from the hospital. His family appreciates your prayers and support.
Jesse’s mom sent a puzzle which we set out in the English Library. The students and librarian, as well as professors who stopped in throughout the day, quickly put together their first puzzle. (The American in the picture is a former Peace Corps volunteer in South Africa who visited us.) Jesse’s JOMA journalism group published a fantastic first edition of the English newspaper, the Xai-Xai Monthly Standard. We have news from the IFP and Xai-Xai, international news (via what we understand from BBC radio), as well as culture, health, sports, fun section, and advertisements for our other extracurricular activities. If you would like a free subscription to this prestigious paper, we are open to international circulation. Just send an email. Also, if you would like to submit an article for publication, you may send it to jesse.routte@gmail.com. Below are a few sample articles from this edition:
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Strangers Attack IFP
May 8, 2009
IFP, Xai-Xai
By António F. Sitoe
On the night of May 8th2009 a man was caught at the IFP gate who said that he was coming from Chibuto to face his girlfriend who is also from Chibuto. This strange man was caught by the students of IFP who were working that night. The guards were absent during this time and students were asked by the supervisor of the boarding, Professor Bernadette, to guard the gate. According to one of the students, named Antonio who was at the gate during the night a man came and asked permission to enter. When the man was asked what his name was and where he was coming from he didn’t give a name and said that he was one of the students at boarding school and was a student in a class DR. António, who is class representative of that class (DR) shamed him by asking his student number and he said that that number does not exist in that class. António asked him to confess the reality and the man saw that they had discovered him. He said that he was the boyfriend of a girl from Chibuto. António went to the gymnasium to call the boarding supervisor and she told him to take him to one of the classrooms and lock him in and the following day they should take him to the police station to be judged by the policemen.
The next day, Saturday he asked to be forgiven and the student guards liberated him and he went out. But he never told which girl was his girlfriend.
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Health Issues in Quarter 6
By David Jeremais
On Sunday our journalism team went to Quarter 6. Where we spoke with Miss Mondane. She told us about the conditions of Quarter 6 regarding health. What we learned from our interview is that some people are suffering from Malaria and diarrhea specifically the children from age 7 up to 14 years old.
The children also talked about the hygiene in quarter 6 is very important to clean and keep clean. People accepted that hygiene is not well done around the families in quarter 6. The street is covered by rubbish.
For better health people said that all have to work together to fight against the illnesses, clean the fields and yards, and take care of the street. So we will be helping each other. We will be returning soon to see what progress has been made.
IFP Sport Frisbee/Football
By Malaquias José Ganhae and Fernando Alberto Moiane
There is not relationship! The trainers of this institute, those who like sport, are extremely admired about sport in this college. But no where they can practice what they like said Amilo, the sport representative. Amiló added: “we love sport, but the school administration is not caring about sport. They don’t take care about the sport in this college. That is why the trainers are not occupied in these things, always are despising sport because no one is supporting them”.
During our interview we met with some girl players that like sports. They demonstrated interest for all kinds of sport, but the problem is in part of the school administration, because they don’t want to make some finances for the sport in this college. “We love all types of sport, and we want to practice but there is no way to do that,” says Graça, one of the women football and Frisbee players.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Winding down

Our teaching is going well with just a couple weeks left in the semester. The students are doing "peer teaching" in all of our classes, getting more experience actually being in front of the class by teaching the primary school lessons to their classmates (acting as 1o year olds). It's fun to see them improve, becoming more creative and confident in their teaching. I've been enjoying my time in front of the classroom too. The students are very fun. Last week we studied Octopus's Garden (Beatles) and they wanted to stay after class to dance to the song they'd learned.
We started "Monday movie" nights, showing English films that have been well-attended.
Last week made our front garden sweet potato harvest into delicious soup.
Please keep your prayers the new baby and family of our good friend, Medard. The baby's name is Samuel. He's been in and out of the hospital the last couple weeks with a respiratory infection and then general weakness so we're all worried about him.